Simply put, we should search mental records for gun buyers. I see nothing wrong with a 3 day waiting period to help prevent passion crimes. We should crack down on illegal gun sales. And if gun dealer makes a mistake and sells to the wrong person, they should get shut-down.

But I beg to differ on the paintball and rubber bullet ideas. Wear a flak jacket and your basically immune to them because it's hard to hit somebody in the face or arm - they move around a bit more than the torso. Even with a flak jacket a .44 will hurt a ton, probably won't knock you down, but man it'll hurt. (the movies are full of hogwash, getting shot is unlikely to knock you down from the impact alone).

Where do you draw the line for mental records? Does extreme ADHD equal being disqualified? How about a social disorder that is easily treatable with medication?

Further, your comment about staying up after being tagged by a .44 magnum round is way off. After the inception of the 9mm Luger Parabellum, police and US Armed Forces found that the lack of stopping power was its biggest problem. If you had someone jacked up on a drug such as PCP, or even adrenaline, a non-fatal wound from a 9mm was never enough to actually put them down. This is why police forces/Coast Guard are almost all moving to the .40 S&W or .357 SIG. These are pistol rounds that will knock a person down. When you move into the realm of the .45 ACP or .44 Mag, it is incredible stopping power, though equally incredible kickback. While the movies are wrong in that a round won't send you flying back, I would love to see someone with Kevlar on and stay standing after a torso shot from any of the higher caliber pistol.

And lastly, in regard to Tortfesor's post, the point of having a Glock 17/19 (the popular 9mm models) is useful as the answer to problems like Cho. Criminal elements will always be able to obtain firearms, illegal or not. It seems absurd to not allow normal citizens (which I agree should be more regulated) the ability to defend against that element. I'm hardly a Red State 2nd Amendment True Believer, but there are a lot of bad people out there. Having a pistol or shotgun for defense purposes is not simply in the province of Montana living militia-members. If you were ever in a situation in which basic social services broke down such as after Katrina, when your life/life of loved ones was at stake, I have a feeling your rubber bullets line would go out the window. Obviously Cho was someone that makes this nation's access to guns somewhat suspect. However, as I think it was noted above, this was one disturbed and crazy not so nice person. If not a Glock, why not a pipebomb or something equally destructive?

I agree with this, except that you have no clue about what a .45 etc will do. It'll probably stop a big man, but that's from the killing power. It's not going to knock you down if you have a vest, unless you stumble. It's simple physics, if it had enough energy to knock you down, it'd probably knock the shooter down too. (equal and opposite reaction)

Reverends Michael Fleger (left) and Jesse Jackson march Monday with supporters to the Markham courthouse. The ministers attended a hearing on charges of trespassing in a June protest at Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale.

Surrounded by ministers, anti-gun activists and two mothers who recently lost a child to gun violence, Reverends Jesse Jackson and Michael Pfleger said Monday they will keep the pressure on a Riverdale gun shop, even as they head to trial on trespassing charges. The ministers spoke outside the Markham courthouse, where they appeared on charges of trespassing stemming from a June protest at Chuck's Gun Shop and a confrontation with owner John Riggio. At Monday's hearing, which lasted just a few minutes, attorneys for Jackson and Pfleger asked for a jury trial, and a date was set for Nov. 26.

We were not guilty of trespassing," Jackson said to several dozen demonstrators Monday. "We're guilty of trying to stop the gun flow." During the confrontation, Riggio complained to police about the ministers, and they were taken into custody. Jackson and Pfleger continued to criticize gun laws as lax and gun manufacturers and sellers, whom they blame for violence in Chicago. "We want sensible gun laws," Jackson said. "You don't hunt with M-16s. You blow holes in tanks with those weapons. They were built just to kill people." In recent months, Jackson and Pfleger, who have called for a statewide ban on assault weapons, have been holding rallies and demonstrations to highlight the toll gun violence has taken on Chicago youths. Assault weapons are banned in Chicago, but the ministers say the law is useless because people buy them at shops, like Chuck's, in the inner-ring suburbs, then bring them into the city. "They don't manufacture guns in the ghetto," Jackson said. "They make the guns, they grow the drugs ... We go to jail and get killed from them."

Pfleger said the arrest was an attempt to intimidate them. "We're not going anywhere. We're going to step it up," he told supporters. Riggio appeared at the hearing but did not speak. He declined to comment afterward. Also present was Clara Allen, mother of a 21-year-old Northern Illinois University student who was fatally shot July 20 on the South Side. Allen said the death of her daughter, Dominique Willis, while she was home on summer break, has spurred her to get involved. "I will not quit," she said. "I lost my child. When will it end?" Annette Nance-Holt, the mother of Blair Holt, spoke to the same issue about her 16-year-old son, who was gunned down on a CTA bus in May while trying to save a friend. His murder, which occurred in the early afternoon, caused hundreds of leaders and residents to rally for solutions. "We shouldn't have to live with gun violence," Nance-Holt said. "No one should have to be in and out of court because their child was killed. I'm here to keep that from happening, if I can."

M-16s blow holes in tanks? That's some M-16. This violence will only stop when fathers start raising men and stop abandoning their children. Murders rarely come from intact families, the college murders excepted, but then, more people are killed daily in major US cities than in Iraq. Why?